Amazing Spider-Man Lizard 8 Inch Figure Review

For the past few Marvel films, Hasbro has released these large 8 inch figures with minimal poseability and construction. While these figures aren’t the nicest, they generally have pretty good sculpts and are nice for younger children. I know I purchased a few of these for kids in my Angel Tree this year, because I knew they’d be a hit with the younger guys. This past week at TJ Maxx, I saw one of these on clearance for $4 and decided I’d pick one up for myself. I’ll buy almost anything for $4.

I was not a big fan of the Amazing Spider-Man movie, so I really didn’t have any intention of buying any of the figures from it. Although I must admit I did look at the Marvel Select Lizard a few times. Although the Lizard seemed to resemble the Goombas from the Super Mario Brothers movie, I found that in the actual film he looked more like a dinosaur. I definitely got a little bit of a Ymir feel from him, even though this figure still suffers a bit from the Goomba syndrome.

Despite all these things, can I come away liking this figure? Is this $4 well spent? Would this be a decent toy even at full price? The answer to these questions and more behind the cut.

Packaging:
It comes in a very basic open half box style card. These are interesting because they’re not blisters, but they’re also not traditional window box packaging either. You can put you hands all over these figures. It reminds me of some of the Imaginext toys that allow you to handle the figure while still in the package. I’m not sure if this is done as a cost cutting measure or if it’s supposed to attract kids to the toy.

Inside the Lizard is strapped down with several twist ties. They aren’t made of traditional plastic but of a paper material. This guy just bucks all the trends. Although the package is very plain, I must commend the back for hitting all the key points: It explains the Lizard’s history, tells about his tail detachment and invites kids to “collect the whole line” which is only 2 figures.

Sculpt/Paint:
The sculpt here is pretty fantastic, while the paint is just adequate. There’s almost no real paint application to speak of on this figure. 90% of this guy is sculpted in the appropriate color plastic. It might seem like that’s a cheap way out, but truth be told, it works really well for the Lizard.

The Lizard is big and yet still has some sleekness to him. It’s a really good representation of the character. In the film I think he was a bit bulkier in the shoulder area, but it plays well to how the Lizard is traditionally depicted.

Probably the worst area is where the head connects to the neck. He just seems too “necky” to me. Unfortunately that seems to be an issue on ALL of the Lizard figures, so I can only assume it’s just difficult to work that problem out in action figure form. He certainly doesn’t look any worse here than on any of the other figures.

The detail on the skin and scales is really nice. I honestly think Hasbro used pretty much the same sculpt on all of their figures and just shrunk it or enlarged it to fit whatever they needed. Whatever the case, he looks very nice even without any paint to really bring out the highlights.

He has some paint on the chest and face. The face paint apps are all nice and clean, while the chest is just sort of a big bold wash. It’s okay, but it’s prone to being scraped. Particularly when this exposed for children to put their grubby little mits on at the store.

Scale wise, he’s quite big. I could see people using this guy as a generic monster in a lot of their collections.

He’s pretty much perfect scale for Megos as well. I suspect if you slapped a different head on this guy, you’d have a great Mego scale Lizard custom.

Articulation:
This is where most collectors will bail out on this guy. It seems that the world of action figures has went backwards in terms of articulation. While this guy would have been a bit above the norm in the 1980’s, he seems underarticulated to some. Oddly enough, he’s pretty much the norm these days as well. Articulation just ain’t what it used to be.

He works out alright with a ball joint head and everything else being a cut joint. I wish he was a little more like vintage Kenner in the elbows, because they’re not quite bent enough for me liking. They need just a bit more bend to be perfect.

The tail connects via a peg as it comes separate in the package. It can take a bit to get it on, but I’m glad to see that he was the swivel there. It makes him a bit “tail heavy” but he can still mostly be posed fine without needing it to stand.

The ball joint head doesn’t give you quite as much movement as I might like, but at least it’s there. All the joints are pretty tight, truth be told.

Accessories:
He doesn’t come with anything.

Value:
At $10 this guy is just barely at the acceptable level for a mass market toy. His size is about the only thing that makes him even close to worth it. For example, the Spider-Man that came in this same line wouldn’t be worth it. But for the character of the Lizard, having a bigger figure like this to torment your 3 3/4 guys might make him a decent purchase. I’m fine with paying $4 for him, but I wouldn’t go over $10. For kids he’s good, for collectors, probably not so much.

I’m a bit overall conflicted on this guy. While he has a great sculpt and even a few points above the big five in articulation, he does seem to be lacking a bit of something. Yet at the same time, I feel like if I’d gotten this guy in the 1980’s, he would have been one of my favorites. The packaging is atrocious to look at, but still manages to get across a lot of the things I think are required for a toy.

So I opted to go for a 6 1/2 here. I think kids will like this guy, but there’s very few collectors who will be able to enjoy him. I think Mego guys might be able to repurpose him and as a generic giant lizard man, I kind of like him. I definitely subscribe to the philosophy that figures don’t have to have a ton of articulation, but I do think this guy could benefit from a few changes.

He has “retro” articulation, but he’s not designed to be as such. If you can get past that, you might just enjoy this Lizard figure.

4 Responses to Amazing Spider-Man Lizard 8 Inch Figure Review

Replacing the cut shoulders with ball joints would be enough to sway me. Even so, at $4 (if I can find him locally), I might buy him just to (as you suggest) photograph him as a generic monster in a G.I. Joe photo.